This monograph presents the latest findings from a long-term research project intended to identify the physics behind Quantum Mechanics. A fundamental theory for quantum mechanics is constructed from first physical principles, revealing quantization as an emergent phenomenon arising from a deeper stochastic process. As such, it offers the vibrant community working on the foundations of quantum mechanics an alternative contribution open to discussion. The book starts with a critical summary of the main conceptual problems that still beset quantum mechanics. The (...) basic consideration is then introduced that any material system is an open system in permanent contact with the random zero-point radiation field, with which it may reach a state of equilibrium. Working from this basis, a comprehensive and self-consistent theoretical framework is then developed. The pillars of the quantum-mechanical formalism are derived, as well as the radiative corrections of nonrelativistic QED, while revealing the underlying physical mechanisms. The genesis of some of the central features of quantum theory is elucidated, such as atomic stability, the spin of the electron, quantum fluctuations, quantum nonlocality, and entanglement. The theory developed here reaffirms fundamental scientific principles such as realism, causality, locality and objectivity. (shrink)

Paul Silva has recently argued that doxastic justification does not have a basing requirement. An important part of his argument depends on the assumption that doxastic and moral permissibility have a parallel structure. I here reply to Silva's argument by challenging this assumption. I claim that moral permissibility is an agential notion, while doxastic permissibility is not. I then briefly explore the nature of these notions and briefly consider their implications for praise and blame.

In Who's Afraid of Idealism? the philosophical concept of idealism, the extent to which reality is mind-made, is examined in new light. Author Luis M. Augusto explores epistemological idealism, at the source of all other kinds of idealism, from the viewpoints of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche, two philosophers who spent a large part of their lives denigrating the very concept. Working from Kant and Nietzsche's viewpoints that idealism was a scandal to philosophy and the cause of nihilism, Augusto (...) evaluates these philosophers and their role in shaping epistemological idealism. Using textual evidence from their writings and their reactions to western philosophers such as Plato, Descartes, and Hegel, Who's Afraid of Idealism? argues that in fact Kant and Nietzsche were really idealists at heart. In accessible prose, this text puts forward a theory that goes against current scholarly opinion, and even Kant and Nietzsche's opinions of themselves. (shrink)

El último año un número significativo de países desarrollados y del tercer mundo iniciaron procesos de transformación social y política a partir de levantamientos, revoluciones y movimientos impulsados por una ciudadanía hasta ahora distanciada e incluso segregada de la esfera política. En algunos países el imperio del mercado, en otros la fuerza represiva de regímenes autoritarios, en los más privilegiados, un nihilismo extendido producto del bienestar material acumulado, venía desde hace añ..

The study of human behaviour, and the minds that produce that behaviour, has been an occupation of scholars, artists, and philosophers for millennia. But it was not until the turn of the twentieth century that psychology came into its own as a distinct field of study—and, more importantly, as a scientifically legitimate field of study. When we view psychology as a science, certain questions naturally emerge: what sorts of phenomena does psychology seek to explain? What is distinctive about the kinds (...) of explanations adduced in this science? How do these explanations integrate with theories and explanations in other fields of study? Does psychology aim to explain all mental phenomena, or are there some areas, such as consciousness, that will be forever beyond its explanatory powers? Due to its very nature, psychology is a field that both philosophers and scientists have critically examined over the years. This critical examination has, in turn, generated a literature that is voluminous, heavily contested, and increasingly technical. To help users to make sense of this large and complex scholarly corpus, this new four-volume collection from Routledge is both comprehensive and sensitive to the ongoing nature of debates in the field. Two expert editors have carefully assembled classic contributions, as well as more recent work, to create an indispensable ‘mini library’ of the best and most influential scholarship in the philosophy of psychology. With a comprehensive index and newly written introductions by the editors, The Philosophy of Psychology will be welcomed by a broad range of scholars, researchers, and advanced students, especially those working in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and cognitive science. (shrink)

The essay aims to illuminate the current crisis, as it has been diagnosed by important currents of contemporary European thought, from the baroque remarkably the Hispanic perspective. The author argues that one of the fundamental figures of the Baroque is what he calls an infinite aporethic difference. According to this, Baroque understands the world as a set of differences that bind aporethically tending to infinity. This figure is, at the same time, shown as a critical operator with regard to reality, (...) which has lost its pre-modern configuration as Cosmos. The author also holds that in its present projection, the figure of the infinite aporethic difference takes the form of a new normativity, namely, that of the Chaosmos, which is particularly visible in post-structuralism and in the Ibero-American Neo-baroque. By its virtue, it is possible to distinguish two ways of coping with the current crisis. The chaosmotic one would be characteristic of a compromised strong trans-modernity, which contrasts with the evasive weak postmodernity. This problem is finally investigated from the point of view of the subtle baroque heroism and its shadow in the present. (shrink)

Durante la primera década del siglo XX el 90% de los migrantes provenía de Europa y se dirigía a cinco países: EEUU, Argentina, Canadá, Brasil y Australia. Hoy esa misma proporción de migrantes proviene de tres continentes: Asia, África y Latinoamérica y se dirige a cuatro grandes regiones: Europa, Norteamérica, Asia Pacífico y El Golfo Pérsico. Las migraciones se han mundializado no tanto por la magnitud de los flujos, que sigue estando por debajo del 5% de la población mundial, sino (...) por el .. (shrink)

Gareth Evans was arguably the finest philosopher of his generation; he died tragically young, but the work he completed has had a seismic impact on the philosophies of language and mind. In this volume an outstanding international team of contributors offer illuminating perspectives on Evans's groundbreaking work, paying tribute to his achievements and leading his ideas in new directions. Contributors Josi Luis Bermzdez, John Campbell, Quassim Cassam, E. J. Lowe, John McDowell, Christopher Peacocke, Ian Rumfitt, Ken Safir, Mark Sainsbury.

Essays on the role of the body in self-consciousness, showing that full-fledged, linguistic self-consciousness is built on a rich foundation of primitive, nonconceptual self-consciousness. These essays explore how the rich and sophisticated forms of self-consciousness with which we are most familiar—as philosophers, psychologists, and as ordinary, reflective individuals—depend on a complex underpinning that has been largely invisible to students of the self and self-consciousness. José Luis Bermúdez, extending the insights of his groundbreaking 1998 book, The Paradox of Self-Consciousness, argues (...) that full-fledged, linguistic self-consciousness is built on a rich foundation of primitive, nonconceptual self-consciousness, and that these more primitive forms of self-consciousness persist in ways that frame self-conscious thought. They extend throughout the animal kingdom, and some are present in newborn human infants. Bermúdez makes the case that these primitive forms of self-awareness can indeed be described as forms of self-consciousness, arguing that they share certain structural and epistemological features with full-fledged, linguistic self-consciousness. He offers accounts of certain important classes of states of nonconceptual content, including the self-specifying dimension of visual perception and the content of bodily awareness, considering how they represent the self. And he explores the general role of nonconceptual self-consciousness in our cognitive and affective lives, examining in several essays the relation between nonconceptual awareness of our bodies and what has been called our “sense of ownership” for our own bodies. (shrink)

En primer término, el autor expone el proceso mediante el cual los conceptos "imagen" y "representación" han perdido su sentido originario en la historia de Occidente; a partir de allí se ha creado una situación de crisis, denominada por el autor "crisis de la representación". Ésta se caracteriza por los siguientes aspectos: 1) el cambio del estatuto óptico de la imagen; 2) la pérdida de todo paradigma visual, con lo cual la imagen ha dejado de servir como intermediaria de sentido; (...) 3) consecuencia de la anterior afirmación, las funciones metafórica y simbólica de la imagen han quedado inoperantes; 4) finalmente, se ha dado lugar a una saturación de imágenes. A partir de este diagnóstico, el autor sostiene que vivimos actualmente en una "culturafractal" u "orden de representación despótica", cuyos fenómenos afines son la estetización de los mundos de vida, la caída de la razón y de la historia. En segundo término, el autor analiza algunas obras del arte colombiano de los años noventa, en las cuales intenta mostrar el eco de la "crisis de la representación". (shrink)

The article identifies a latent debate in the recent literature on the role and worth of experiments in economics and other social sciences concerning the relationship between the external and the internal validity of experimental designs. Our work identifies two incompatible views regarding the relationship between internal and external validity of experiments. While in the methodological literature references to the idea that there is a trade-off between the internal and external validity of experiments abound, this view coexists with the position (...) stating that internal validity is rather a prerequisite of external validity. By identifying the contours of this implicit debate in the recent methodological literature around the use of experiments in the social sciences we call attention upon a series of insufficiently conceptualized issues regarding the central notions of internal and external validity and we question the standard view positing a trade-off between the two. This article stands against common associations of internal validity and external validity with the distinction between field and laboratory experiments and assesses critically the arguments that link the artificiality of experimental settings done in the laboratory with the purported trade-off between internal and external validity. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo examinar a alienação que envolve a atividade do professor coordenador, relacionando esse profissional às expectativas do ideário neoliberal, reproduzido pela escola burguesa e comparar as atribuições destinadas a esse profissional com o seu fazer efetivo. O universo da pesquisa engloba a escola pública do Estado de São Paulo e a atividade do professor coordenador, especialmente as de Ciclo II. O referencial usado é o materialismo histórico dialético, e a categoria de análise é a teoria (...) da alienação, formulada por Marx e estudada por Mészáros. (shrink)

El artículo va en contra de la apreciación del escepticismo filosófico según la cual éste posee algún significado en cuanto supone el realismo metafísico y defiende pretensiones universales. Una tal visión del escepticismo filosófico es considerada aquí, más bien, como banal. Contra esta interpretación del escepticismo filosófico, se desea mostrar que éste puede ser concebido como una posición filosófica de interés aun cuando no infiera la imposibilidad del saber a partir del carácter inverificable del realismo, o aun cuando no defienda (...) actitudes destructivas con pretendido valor imiversal. El artículo quiere comprender los motivos escépticos relativistas e indicar su valor en cuanto ellos cuestionan el status de la filosofia como teoría de segtmdo orden, o meta-teoría. (shrink)

Los libros plúmbeos del Sacromonte forman un audaz intento de resistencia intelectual e intervención en el pensamiento cristiano por parte de la comunidad morisca granadina. Tomando elementos tanto de la proliferación pseudoprofética en la España del XVI como de la visión islámica de la historia de las religiones, se crean unos textos que aunque islámicos en su mensaje final, pueden ser aceptables tanto para cristianos como para musulmanes, especialmente a partir de las traducciones realizadas de los textos árabes. Este intento (...) cristalizaría con esa "Verdad del Evangelio" anunciada en el Sacromonte, que se materializa en el Evangelio de Bernabé, cuyas similitudes con los libros plúmbeos son numerosas, y que presenta lo que desde el punto de vista del Islam podría ser un relato de la vida y mensaje de Jesús antes de las alteraciones efectuadas por el cristianismo. (shrink)

Este cuento es una composición literaria en la que se intenta criticar agudamente las costumbres y vicios de muchos profesores y profesoras que en una planta académica avejentada proliferan haciendo inconmensurable daño a los que pasan por sus manos. El cuento tiene una intención moralizadora, lúdica y más que nada, burlesca, aparte de lo dramático. Es decir, se trata de una sátira. El protagonista es un profesor que alguna vez hizo en Londres su doctorado, siguiendo un proceso que lo expuso (...) a múltiples presiones y humillaciones. Ya en su patria tiene la convicción que es su turno para hacer con otros lo que hicieron con él, discriminar a los que no coinciden con el perfil británico que el protagonista creyó haber introyectado. Enfundado en su atuendo decimonónico, reflejo devoto de la imagen de su padre y abuelo,, ese día se prepara como sinodal de una defensa de tesis de un alumno cuya imagen, clase social y presencia desencadena en él, el resentimiento y rechazo que ha acumulado a lo largo de su vida. Suponemos que dicho candidato no pasará la prueba con los arcaicos estándares que este profesor aplicará. (shrink)

A lo largo de este ensayo el autor pone de manifiesto el interés creciente que ha experimentado en nuestro panorama filosófico la asignatura de “Historia de la Filosofía Española”, especialmente a través de iniciativas variadas que tienen como protagonista a la “Asociación de Hispanismo Filosófico”, fundada en 1988. La conclusión es que hoy es posible “pensar en español”.

Estuda-se a percepção do tempo nos poetas augustanos, analisando-se as duas perspectivas fundamentais, a dos poetas epicuristas (Horácio, Ovídio, poetas elegíacos) e a dos poetas estóicos (Vergílio). Verifica-se que, embora dependam da teorização filosófica de origem grega, manifestam características pessoais que vão para além dela.

The article addresses the works of three 19th-century philosophers: Herbart, Bolzano and Lotze. Despite their differences, i will analyze two essential features they share: their refusal to psychologism as the radicalization of psychology as the ultimate source of philosophy , and the positing of an ideal ‘reality’, independent from both sensibility and the mental and linguistic dimensions, upon which the refusal to psychologism is founded . As a conclusion, i will show how, according to these authors, this platonic, ideal background (...) constitutes the very foundation of every meaningful thought. (shrink)

Introduction - From the Illiad to the Studies on Hysteria: A chronology of the discovery of the unconscious mind - Freud's theories of the unconscious mind - Jung's collective unconscious - Lacan's linguistic paradigm.

Nietzsche's reflection on art extends throughout his philosophical work. From the early claim of an “artist's metaphysics” to the late considerations that see in art the privileged form of the Will to Power, Nietzsche makes his attempt to overcome western metaphysics to depend on a particular ontological conception of the artistic fact. This ontological aestheticism, of enormous influence in current philosophical trends, has been the subject of various comments and criticisms. Less interest has raised instead the analysis of the implications (...) that this long nietzschean meditation concerning art can have in the interior of the aesthetic field itself: what is the specificity of art compared with other fields of human action? What results for the individual and for culture from the encounter with the phenomenon of art? This article constitutes a first attempt to answer these questions. Its analysis focuses in The Birth of Tragedy and, to a lesser extent, in the physiology of art found in the Twilight of the Idols. The article's central thesis defends that, according to Nietzsche, the aesthetical experience is essentially an experience of knowledge, a type of knowledge that gives access to truth. (shrink)

Pascal, in his Mémorial, contraposed the God of philosophers and the God of Abraham, of Jacob and of Jesus Christ. John Paul II, in Crossing the threshold of Hope, enters into dialogue with this Pascalian thought. The author analizes step by step, this confrontation, making it manifest that John Paul II advocates a style of philosophy which has a strong existential emphasis. Only such a philosophy explains, according to the thought of John Paul II, the truth as much about God (...) as about man. (shrink)

O artigo pretende mostrar de que forma Martin Heidegger compreende o modo de ser do Dasein na sua cotidianidade e apresentar os existenciais que possibilitam a superação desse estado, na direção das possibilidades mais próprias. Na cotidianidade, que se caracteriza pela impessoalidade, o que permanece oculto é exatamente o ser-no-mundo, a radical contingência e finitude da existência humana. Angústia, morte, consciência, culpa e resolução, liberados de seu sentido metafísico, deverão poder desocultar tal situação e conduzir o Dasein para o seu (...) modo de ser originário, enfim, para si mesmo. (shrink)

This paper shows a new philosophical turn towards a new realism emerging today. And its originality lies on Maurizio Ferraris, who has recently published his Manifiesto del nuevo realismo**, which has been followed by personalities such as Umberto Eco and John Searle. On this basis, Mexican philosopher Mauricio Beuchot and me have written our Manifiesto del nuevo realismo analógico***, which had had a great acceptance by Maurizio Ferraris himself. He translated our manifest and introduced it into Italy. I will take (...) this article as a chance to thank him for reading and considering our manifest. To sum up, what I will show is article is a picture of new realism from analogical hermeneutics point of view and the reason why we choose the analogical focus on it to be accurate. (shrink)

This article shows the results of an investigation registered in the field of pedagogy. The scenario and starting point to situate our company is the fact of knowing that the subordination of education is increasingly greater than the mechanisms of the free market economy; besides that, a real reform of the education will not be carried out if the elements for the construction of the professional identity of the educator are not analyzed in depth, we think that a substantial reform (...) of the educative system involves the reconstruction of the educator's identity from the perspective philosophical, for this reason our goal is to help uncover the educator reason to be, that is, to expose –in front of present concealment– his identity, as well as to explain the keys of constitution of the educational act. (shrink)

A partir da exegese do próprio texto espinosano, objetivamos pôr em evidência a dificuldade que este gera acerca da conciliação entre o uno e o múltiplo ou diverso, isto é, entre a substância divina e seus atributos. Partiremos do raciocínio pelo qual, na _Ética_, Espinosa demonstra o monismo de sua filosofia, ou a existência de Deus, enquanto única substância, para logo criticar um dos seus pressupostos, a saber, a existência de Deus, enquanto substância que consiste de infinitos atributos. A nossa (...) exegese, assim, concentrar-se-á nos argumentos e princípios que a Espinosa lhe permitem demonstrar ou justificar que a uma substância podem ser atribuídos mais de um atributo, e, destarte, que a uma substância absolutamente infinita devam ser atribuídos infinitos atributos. O problema que pretendemos evidenciar decorre do fato de que, de acordo com a exegese que propomos, os argumentos e princípios em questão parecem não cumprir com seu desígnio, nos deixando a dificuldade de compreender de que maneira, ao certo, Espinosa pode superar a autonomia dos atributos, posta por sua perseidade, de tal sorte a que eles, em lugar de serem concebidos como substâncias autônomas, devam ser ditos atributos de uma mesma e única substância. Longe de propormos uma solução para tal dificuldade, ou bem de analisar alguma das soluções que tem sido apresentadas pela tradição de comentadores, pretendemos expôr o problema, à luz daquilo que Espinosa expõe em sua obra-prima, a fim de que tal exposição possa servir de alavanca para a análise da difícil relação que a filosofia espinosana estabelece entre a substância divina e seus atributos, incluindo o exame do que seja, ao certo, um atributo divino. (shrink)

The will to escape from the so called Metaphysics of Presence has become a topic in contemporary philosophy. However, this topic is often related to the primacy, in ancient thought, of the actual being, and the correlative evaluation of the potential as an imperfect way of existence. In this text we first analyze the traditional interpretation of the foundations of this primacy in Aristotle’s philosophy, that exhibits a theological form. According to this we explore, in the second part of the (...) article, how the efforts of modern thinkers to build an ontological discourse free from this primacy have produced, in some cases, a kind of Umkehrung resulting in a Metaphysics of Absence that preserves the theological form and results in a primacy of the potential, that is specifically consistent with the Imperium of the Virtual, very illustrative of nowadays conceptions of time, language, power and being. Finally, we essay to offer another interpretation of the primacy of the actual in Aristotle’s Ethics and Metaphysics, which could identify a political philosophy capable to avoid the infertile alternative Presence/Absence in ontology. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to focus on Wittgenstein's conception about Psychology as Science. For that purpose we analyse first Wittgenstein's approach to the psychological questions conected with his new theory of meaning. Then, we intend to concentrate on his idea of Psychology as Science, separating the scientist's from the philosopher's tasks. Finally, we intend to place wittgensteinian view about Psychology as Science in relation to the different views defending a methodological dualism connected with the methodological tension unity-diversity of (...) Science. (shrink)

ResumoTomando como referência o campo dos estudos sobre deficiência (disability studies) e a conceitualização de capacitismo – forma particular de marginalização das pessoas com deficiência –, o artigo investiga a ligação entre as ideias eugenistas e o surgimento de uma modalidade de educação destinada a essas pessoas, a educação especial. Nesse sentido, as ciências biomédicas, ao operarem uma separação entre normalidade e anormalidade ofereceram as bases necessárias para a distinção entre capazes e incapazes, tornando estes inferiores àqueles. Por sua vez, (...) isso leva a pôr em questão as matrizes epistemológicas que subjazem tais distinções, considerando-as como participantes nos fundamentos do pensamento ocidental e, portanto, implicadas nos projetos políticos que desembocaram em segregação racial, social e desumanização de diferentes grupos.Palavras-chave: Estudos sobre Deficiência. Capacitismo. Educação. Educação Especial. AbstractTaking as reference the field of disability studies and the conceptualization of ableism - a particular form of marginalization of people with disabilities - this article investigates the connection between eugenic ideas and the emergence of a modality of education aimed at these people: special education. In this sense, the biomedical sciences offered, by operating a separation between normality and abnormality, the necessary basis for the distinction between capable and incapable, making these inferior to those. In turn, this leads us to question the epistemological matrices that underlie such distinctions, considering them as participants in the foundations of Western thought and, therefore, implicated in the political projects that led to racial, social segregation and dehumanization of different groups.Keywords: Disability Studies. Ableism. Education. Special Education. (shrink)

Apresenta as orientações teóricas que serviram de fundamentação para a criação e metodologia da produção da hipermídia. Ele acompanha a hipermídia que se apresenta na forma de CD-ROM, inserido no interior da própria capa do livro. A obra oferece uma navegação reticular sobre as mais diversas relações entre a psicanálise freudo-lacaniana, a história da cultura e os sistemas hipermidiáticos. Animações, vídeos, hipertextos, trilhas e locuções mesclam-se no interior de um labirinto, interagindo com conceitos teóricos que oferecem os links entre as (...) diversas áreas. (shrink)

O presente artigo busca não somente reconstruir as noções de “avaliação” (Werthschätzung) e “valor” (Werth) presentes nas obras de Nietzsche, mas pretende mostrar que ambas precisam ser pensadas à luz da noção de “medida de valor” (Werthmaass), haja vista que esta é imprescindível para a compreensão do conceito de transvaloração de todos os valores na filosofia nietzschiana. Palavras-chave: Nietzsche, avaliação, medida de valor, valor, transvaloração.

El trabajo defiende que la verdad del mundo es, en el Barroco hispano, diferencial. El mundo consiste en una multiplicidad infinita de diferencias en relación, teniendo esta última carácter de ser. Es, además, una multiplicidad de perspectivas reales, cada una de las cuales constituye una infinitud de acontecimientos diferentes. Esta verdad diferencial está vinculada a la aporía según la cual el mundo es todo y nada al unísono, de manera que el infinito trascendente posee en el mundo la paradójica y (...) creativa presencia de su ausencia. El autor sostiene también que la verdad es dependiente de una ética, litigiosa con el mundo dado, y de una posición existencial que rechaza la auto-identidad del sujeto (su identificación con el rol e intereses del teatro del mundo). Desde tales resultados, el autor analiza las diferencias entre la modernidad prevaleciente (cartesiana, científica e identitaria) y la modernidad-otra que representa el Barroco hispano. (shrink)